Attaching the Flesh: A Character Questionnaire

Characters easily make or break a story. It’s not about having a “good” or “bad” character; rather, it’s a difference of dimensions. To give your characters that third dimension of presence requires adding layers to who they are—patching sinews of flesh onto their waiting bones.

Okay, that’s a bit morbid. The point is that it’s crucial that you take time to develop your characters. This questionnaire will help you start thinking about your character in a deeper, fleshier way.

It’s 50 questions long (with bonus and sub-questions to boot), so I won’t be saying anything extra after the last question’s been asked. Hop past the break to start the survey.

A Quick Disclaimer

While this questionnaire will walk you through creating highly specific descriptions of your character’s appearance, beliefs, background, and personality, the idea is not to then include all these details in your story. Rich details such as these can be powerful, but must be applied carefully and sparingly.

The answers to these questions are resources—things to think about with your character which can be included or disregarded as you write. The goal of this questionnaire is not to show you what details should be included when describing characters in your writing. Rather, the goal is to strengthen your sense of who the character is so a greater depth can naturally bleed through when you write.

Thinking through your character with this level of detail can be useful, but none of these questions make or break the character. Your answers are fabric in the character’s patchwork. Don’t get hung up on any one question; skip ahead if it helps you. These questions are meant to stimulate creative thinking about your character. Approach the exercise in that way.

NOT white, black, tan. Be specific (e.g., “latte-with-extra-soy,” “pale as ivory,” “the color of golden-glazed bread fresh out of the oven”).

4. What special aesthetic characteristics does your character have?

Does your character have notable scars? Freckles? A small nose? Big feet?

5. Does your character have any piercings? Tattoos?

Give details: What do the tattoos look like? Why did they get them? If they lack these extra decorations, why?

6. What’s the sexiest physical characteristic of your character?

Everyone’s sexy in their own special way. Is your character tall? Broad-shouldered? With a well-proportioned face? Wielding thick lips? What feature is most likely to attract people to them?

7. What’s the ugliest physical characteristic of your character?

Everyone’s ugly in their own special way. What physical characteristics are unappealing about your character? Do they have a weight problem? Big ears? A large forehead? An obtrusively visible neck-mole?

BONUS: What element of their appearance is your character most insecure about?

8. What does your character wear?

Describe a typical outfit your character may wear, including fine details such as color, style, brand, and/or fabric.

The astrological charts is a fun idea. I often know what the character’s sign is and whether or not they believe in astrology. Do you have any resources/guides for putting together something more complex than that for a character?

Emily

You can easily find a birth-chart-maker online, try the “astrology” section on tarot.net. (Why do I know this? c: )

Little ink dots

I would like to see a question like: “Does your Character, hold a item that is special or unique to them, such as a locket, pocket watch or photo. Why is this item special to them? is it a gift, a memory they want to hold onto, something that keeps them tied to reality?

I only say because i have a character that has a hair clip with a symbol of a knight group she is part of, it is an old family heirloom, and she keeps it as a reminder of who she is and where she came from. You talk about tattoos, clothing and scars, for some people a small item can hold just as much meaning as any of those. 🙂

There’s actually an exercise I use that specifically looks at the character’s prized possessions. Stay tuned; it will be posted in the coming … while. (The writing content on the site is going through something of a transitionary period, and details haven’t been finalized.)

How about? How does she eat? What are her pet peeves? Who is her best friend? Who are her enemies?

DaisyInfinity

This is the best character questionnaire I’ve seen so far! Thanks!

April

I’ve used this questionnaire for every character I’ve created thus far. Thank you so much for posting it!

S.E.Swea

‘What they look for in a platonic relationship?’
‘What they look for in a romantic relationship?’
‘What they find most appealing about a person?’
‘What odd fetish do they admit to?’
‘Do they prefer one close friend or many acquaintances?’
‘Are they detail-orientated, and if so, in what way?’

Noelle Ernst

Lovely character questionnaire! Main question I thought should be included is “What do their parents/loved ones think of their life choices,” I figured it could help develop your characters relationships

I was going through for one of my characters and came up with a few more…

What’s your character interested in? (ex: sports, art, music, history, economic theory)
What are they interested in that they don’t want anyone to know about? (ex: a college student taking a liberal arts class when they’re supposed to be studying to be a doctor, etc.)
Does your character ever get worked up over these interests, especially to an embarrassing degree?

What is the one thing they never want their mom/mother figure to find out about? (There’s always something, from eating the last piece of cake when they were five to stealing her heirloom diamond necklace to sell for drug money.)

How easily do they trust? (Are they naive enough to tell personal secrets to a kind-looking stranger? Are they skeptical enough they don’t trust the neighbor they’ve known for years to hold their mail while they’re on vacation?)
Why? (Are they not trustworthy, so they assume the same of everyone else? Have they had bad experiences in the past?)
Do they see this as a good thing or a bad thing?
Are they even aware of this? (Does the naive sixteen-going-on-seventeen girl think she’s savvy about long-lasting relationships?)

Do they see the world as a predominantly good place or bad? Or indifferent?
So, for example: When they’re in the middle of an unfamiliar city and thinking about stopping a stranger to ask for directions, does your character assume they’d be friendly and give directions, direct them to a dark alley where a gang lurks, or curtly tell them to ask someone else?

How easily do they keep secrets? (How often? Do they feel guilty? Where on the scale of trivial to important does the line lie?)
Can they keep secrets at all? (Can they not help immediately telling everyone? Do they take it to their grave?)
What about difficult secrets? (If they were a priest hearing confessional, at what point would they tell someone?)

How easily do they lie? What do they consider white lies vs real lies?

What’s your character’s Guilty Pleasure? (Do they talk smack about Buzzfeed with their friends, then go home and spend hours on the site? Or is it just chocolate?)

Do they have enemies? How many? What kind of people are they? Where did the bad blood come from?
Who are their friends? How did they meet them? How many are there?

What do they hate most about day-to-day life? (Their commute? Mandatory family dinner? Having to get out of bed at all?)
What do they like most about day-to-day life? (Spending time with their kids? Relaxing after work? Knowing that the day’s work was well done?)

How easily are they offended? (Are they offended on behalf of the east wind if the west wind won’t let it take a turn? Or do they take everything like a rug?)
Is there a reason for that? (Do they have personal experience with something? Do all of their friends feel a certain way? Do they not care because they don’t care about anything?)
How forgiving are they? (ex: are they Maleficent, unforgiving of not being invited to a party? Are they an abused wife who always believes her abuser husband’s promise to stop?)
What does forgiveness mean to them? (Is it forgive and forget? Or: “I guess I won’t kill you.”)
What things are they more/less willing to forgive about? (Would they forgive murderers more easily than cheaters?) Why?
Do they think they’re forgiving?
How does their ability to forgive/lack thereof reflect on their relationships, and do they see the fallout of that? (This one is specifically relevant if they do not forgive easily.)

How far are they willing to go to achieve their dreams/goals? (Do they give up at the first sign of opposition? Their first failure? Or will they kill to get ahead if that’s what it takes?)

Do they have health problems? (Are they glucose intolerant? Handicapped somehow?)
How long have they had these problems?
How bad are they? (Ex: if they have chronic fatigue, does it stop them from leaving the house a lot, or does it stop them from leaving bed a lot?)
How do they deal with it? (Ignore it? Take it cheerfully? Throw gobs of money at it? Move on and try to find ways to make a new life with it?)
Do they refuse to accept it and try to live their life normally? How does that go?
Does it hurt their self-respect?
Has it made them an entirely different person than they were before it happened? (Are they more/less religious? More/less appreciative of what they have or had?)
How does it effect their relationships? (does it make it hard to talk to old friends? Draw their family closer? Give them more empathy for strangers’ suffering?)

Do they think they’re attractive?
Why? (Have people told them that all their life? Did they ask people on social media? Do they look in the mirror and make their own decision despite what others say? Did they use a computer software to map their face from a picture and calculate symmetry?)

What do they think is attractive? (This is something I think a lot of people overlook, especially if they’re working with a culture aside from their own, including fantasy cultures. See, if you give a woman’s (or man’s) picture to photoshop artists from different parts of the world and ask them to make her perfect, you come out with very different images. Each culture has its own ideas of beauty, and there can be huge variations within each culture, too. So what does he/she think of cheekbones? Hairlines? Eyebrows? Are you working with a poor culture where fatter people will be seen as more desirable, or an 1800s European setting where men’s hands were supposed to be able to go all of the way around a woman’s tiny waist? Is pale skin the thing, or are there tanning salons everywhere? Do they pluck their hairlines higher? Bind girls’ feet? Are beards and/or mustaches seen as sophisticated or unrefined?)

Romance:
Do they have a type? (Tall? Funny? Tall, funny, and likes Spanish food?)
What is the most attractive quality they think anyone can have?
What are the deal-breakers? (Try to come up with some more specific to your character than just ‘they have to like my family.’ For example, they can’t be a smoker, because your character is struggling to quit smoking and that will not help.)
What’s their perfect woman/man/other? (Full description mandatory.) Do they think they’ll find their perfect mate, or do they recognize it as a fantasy?

If they have a significant other/romance in the story:
When was the first time they were attracted to them? (When they met? After she took off her glasses?)
What do they see as the other person’s greatest strength?
What do they see as the other person’s greatest flaw?
What do they find cute about the other person? (How they react to their sports team scoring a point? Their expression when they concentrate? Their nervous ticks?)
What’s the biggest difference between the two of them? (Are they of different religions? Morning person vs. night owl?)
What’s the biggest thing they share? (Do they both want a lot of children? Do they share love languages? Or do they both just love chocolate?)
Going along with the earlier question of if they think of themselves as attractive, do they think the other person finds them attractive? (ex: they don’t like how they look, but the other person has mentioned how much they like a cleft chin, and your character has one. Conversely, did the other person take one look at your attractive character and just turn away with no signs of interest?)
How does the other person effect your character? Do they encourage them? Are they always critiquing? Is it constructive criticism given with the best intentions, but your character can’t help but take it personally?
How does your character effect them?
All things considered, are they good for each other?